The present invention relates to wood splitting apparatus, and more particularly to an improved multi-blade wood splitting wedge particularly well adapted for hand-held use.
As is well known, the use of wedge-shaped tools for splitting wood billets dates from antiquity as the need for splitting billets into smaller, more easily burned and handled pieces has existed for centuries. Accordingly, various types of tools have been devised to fill this need. The simplest, and by far most common, is a wedge-shaped piece of metal which is inserted into a crack or split in a wood billet, the split having been begun by an axe. As is well known by those familiar with the art of wood splitting, it is difficult to place a wedge directly upon the flat end of a wood billet, and drive the wedge into the wood surface. While this can be done, it is much simpler and easier to initiate a small split by means of an axe, and then place the wedge into the started split in order to force the split billet apart.
With the coming of the machine age, and while split logs were still commonly required for heating and the like, much attention was directed toward the machine-splitting of wood billets. In order to make use of the vastly increased power provided by machines, various sorts of multi-bladed splitting implements were devised. Among these are the machines disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 508,221--Hill; 42,323--Wibirt; 383,690--Barrows; 111,333--Ficht; and 1,189,999--Peter. Another such machine is disclosed in French Pat. No. 586,618--Henri.
While the above-referenced patents all disclose multi-bladed wedges of various types it can be inferred that at least most of them were operable, in view of the great force developed by the associated machinery. A few approaches to the use of multi-bladed wedges as hand-held or hand-operated tools are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,364,737--Dudley and 3,515,372--Courville; and in Austrian Pat. No. 185,266--Schmidt.
In view of the renewed interest in conserving energy and more particularly in minimizing the use of fossil fuels, there is renewed interest in preparing wood for burning, and accordingly in the techniques of wood splitting. It will therefore be seen that it would be highly desirable to provide an improved wood splitting tool for cleaving a wood billet into several pieces, yet which avoids the deficiencies of the prior art and does not require the use of a machine to accomplish splitting of the billet.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved hand-held wood splitting wedge of the multi-blade type.
Yet another object is to provide a hand-held wedge which may be driven into a wooden billet without the need for providing a starting split in the billet.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved multi-bladed wedge of the hand-held type which combines ease of wood penetration with optimum wood splitting effect.